Project description
Bright young minds advance European leadership in green industrial biotechnology
Carbon can form a virtually limitless number of compounds thanks to the many ways carbon can bind to other atoms, including other carbon atoms. Carbon-carbon (C-C) chemistry is one of the most important areas of organic chemistry, leading to diverse molecules including long chains, branched chains and ring structures. The 2005 and 2010 Nobel Prizes in chemistry were awarded for results regarding C-C bond formation, something that is quite difficult to manipulate and control. Catalytic processes have had some success, but natural enzymatic ones could offer a route to significantly more molecules in a more environmentally friendly way and with greater control. The EU-funded CC-TOP project is supporting young researchers and their innovations in cutting-edge enzyme technology directed at C-C bond formation with numerous applications in industrial biotechnology.
Objective
Industrial Biotechnology is a Key Enabling Technology under Horizon 2020, expected to boost technological innovation and industrial leadership in the EU. It can improve chemical processes in compliance with the principles of Green Chemistry and effectively address social, environmental and economic needs. Assembling simple fragments to build larger, more complex products is an essential technology at the heart of industrial organic synthesis. With traditional chemical methods, C–C bond formation (“carboligation”) is difficult to control selectively, whereas enzymes can catalyze carboligation with excellent precision. Such addition reactions are ideally suited for industrial applications, being highly atom-efficient and producing no waste material. For unleashing the vast, hidden treasury of enzymatic carboligation, the CC-TOP consortium has identified and will address a number of critical needs, technology gaps, practical challenges and synthetic opportunities presenting a huge potential for innovation. The main goal of the CC-TOP ETN is to deliver tailored training and education to 15 top early-career researchers on cuttingedge carboligation enzyme technology and its translation into efficient Industrial Biotechnology applications, i.e. production of chiral fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The training will be implemented within an established network of worldleading European academic institutions and industrial partners, forming strong interdisciplinary relations through cosupervision and inter-sectoral secondments of the ESRs. The network´s aim for efficient translation of breakthrough technology into industrial applications is emphasized through the implementation of an industrial skills module involving all ESRs. CC-TOP combines leading-edge discovery technologies with state-of-the-art protein engineering and structural biology methods to specifically optimize process-validated carboligases for scalable applications in Industrial Biotechnology.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyindustrial biotechnology
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryorganic reactions
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugs
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsenzymes
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmolecular biologystructural biology
Keywords
Programme(s)
Coordinator
64289 Darmstadt
Germany